Marc1

Yes, though so from watching them in action on YT. We don't have them here, not much snow. Probably would be good for mud, but we live in a nanny state that legislates over absolutely everything and they would be most likely "banned". We can't even ride a Segway on the footpath ! As for rising a 4WD, providing you don't go overboard, it makes a real difference. I have a Toyota Surf ... you call it a Tundra i believe and I have moderately raised the suspension 2" and the body another 2" and that allows me to go places others can't, yet I can use it as an ordinary car on the pavement no problem. Of course if you rise the car a foot or two, things go pear shaped very quickly

Nice stand. Good idea with the wheels to move the anvil around. I suppose you will bolt the anvil down before you tip it to move it? Wouldn't want to trust the silicone on end grain.

Josh, I use a magnetic 'broom' consistently every time I finish for fear of the little one getting something in their feet. Not sure what you call it but mine is just a big long magnet attached to a long handle a bit like a rake. Some have wheels to keep it above the floor, others like mine has no wheels and I take it back and forth picking up everything in it's path. You can hear it getting all the little bits, and best of all even the filings from the grinder. It's amazing how much metal you can pick up after just one day of work. As for walking in and out of the house, I leave the working boots at the door.

Frosty, I love those add on 4WD CAT tracks. They look cool. Probably wreck the front end though. I suppose you can use a Fiskars hammer to fix it?

Have not used it yet ... i am working on a very challenging ( for me anyway) gate and don't want to experiment with new hammers. using a Hofi 3# and a rounding 4# at the moment. The Fiskars feels nice in the hand. Will give it a go when I make some fish tail scrolls. I like the shape of the pein.

How curious, I saw that hammer at my local hardware less than a month ago and bought it straight away. Among a sea of claw hammers, mallets and ball peen hammers this stood out like a sore thumb.

Reason was, contrary to my predictions, wrong gas. Bunnings is our main hardware chain that is omnipresent and all encompassing and has incorporated welding gases recently in their inventory. Their staff when mostly friendly, are usually a bit aloof and clueless. I hope he can get the cylinder swapped without paying for another charge. If at all possible I prefer to buy from the specialist and not from them. A welding supplier would be my choice any time, but convenience and location for a country like ours is a big consideration ... sometimes the only consideration.

A question for a discrete visit to a solicitor and not for an open forum. I like the expression "paying under the table" ... isn't that the way politician get paid? In a brown envelop ...

Hans, honestly ... your bombastic post make me laugh every time. Each to his own. Yet you did not explain your sideline comment.

About ventilation and flue in general ... I always wondered why is it that almost no one uses fan forced flue. THere are some good fans with the motor outside of the box and you can get away with 6" instead of having to use 12". As far as those whirly birds. Do they actually do anything?

I agree that it is probably more ready for retirement than work. Although it could take some light work no problem. It is one of those tools that would force comments like "Only it's mother can love it"

Aussie ... how did you go with the cylinder swap? Hans ... no amount of fancy display makes up for experience or lack of it. As for the "Indian guy" comment ... do you care to explain?

You know the line Qantas pilots use on the Japanese visitors ... "welcome todaay" works only with aussie accent.

That explains it. Asking anything to Bunnings staff is akin to use sign language with a blind person.

You are probably right with the clean up. Nothing like a nice clean weld. I was picturing building a sculpture out of large I beams twisted like from a nuclear explosion ... Can't beat TIG for cleanliness. No one Oxy welds anymore?

Absolutely. It has to do with the geometry of the tong. When you close the jaws and exercise a reasonable amount of pressure, the tong jaws unless aligned, will tend to twist. A gooseneck offset jaw will flex and twist much more than a straight jaw forged to be in line with one another. i don't think I would want a tong with two dissimilar jaws like the one at the top.

Does it say 100% Argon on the cylinder label? Someone told me once he had an Argon cylinder by mistake and used it on mild steel by cranking up the pressure. Never tried that myself. Waste of money. On T4 it is not only the wire coming out by itself, it auto sets the welding parameters and when you want it to stop you hit the trigger again and it stops. Not something you would use. Bunnings welding gas self explanatory labeling ... expensive at $99 if you consider speedgas E size (double the capacity of a D size) at $140 To stick parts together for sculptures, I suggest you swap to flux core. No gas and no worries with working outside. A bit more spatter but you get better at it as you use it more ... and don't forget to swap polarity Oh ... and it says MIG not MAG

Argon 93 / CO2 5 / Oxygen 2 Check this link for a guide to MIG gases. By the way for the purist, see that the welding of all this metals is still called MIG. https://www.ewelders.com.au/selecting-the-right-welding-gas Note that gas suppliers will recommend slightly different mix for commercial purposes. 95/5 would do just as well for thin steel, and of course the popular 75/25 is most likely just as good as their 78/20/2

Good for you Doctor ... Polarity ... I knew I forgot something. Check that the earth is Negative and the torch positive. I remember the first time I used flux cored wire because I run out of gas. Did not change the polarity and made a mess. Blaming the wire I wanted to return the wire in disgust. The supplier was good, he probably heard this many times before ... "did you reverse the polarity?" he asked in a calm tone ... I knew to do this it just did not occurred to me at the time ... things we do Nee ... GMAW stands for Ginger, Macaroni and Anchovy Waldorf salad.

THere are many more potential problems I failed to mention like a good earth, and the right power supply to your machine. When I bought my last MIG machine it was one of the last transformer machine. Today they are all electronic inverters. it came with a lead that had 2.5mm wires and the machine did not perform at all from new. A quick call to Cigweld, and the techno guy confessed that in order to sell a 250A welder they needed to make it look as if you could use it in a home situation or it would not sell. He told me to replace the lead for a 6mm x 3 lead, to plug it into a 32A power point, and sent me a self darkening helmet as a gift to buy my silence. Your machine should have a 4mm lead and plug into a 20 amp powerpoint. Mine now works as intended. Note: we run on 240V Check your earth clamp, for broken wires, lose copper tip and clean your work in order to actually give earth a chance. if you get sick of your machine, buy an electronic one. THe new inverters are over the initial problems and are much better and way easier to use than the one you have.

You will never get a decent weld with a MIG welding on dirty or rusty steel. It's not a stick welder. Another thing. Your welding woes have nothing to do with the gas. We have all changed from BOC to Coregas to save on renting fees. Coregas is a reputable company. I use their gas and there is nothing wrong with it. Can you check the cylinder's label and see the gas mix you have? if your wire keeps on feeding without you pressing the torch switch, you have the machine on T4. Turn it to T2 all the way to the left. 190 amp is a small machine, you need more juice to get a puddle. Get a clean 5mm flat bar, and try to get an arc started by pushing the torch, not dragging it. For each Voltage setting, ( the lower button that goes from 1 to 8) there is a wire speed that goes with it, that is the top button in meters per minute. Try in the number 6 as a guess, and change the wire speed until you find it sounds just right, a smooth fast crackling sound. Those who say like frying bacon, are probably frying a different kind of bacon since it clearly does not sound like that. Once you have a setting that works, try to put down a bead by moving the torch forward in a small and fast spiral fashion keeping a slight angle back. Stay out of the wind. There are many welding tutorials on youtube. A good one is "welding tips and tricks". Practice makes the master but it is much easier to learn from a local welder or take some welding classes. Lastly, there could be something wrong with your machine. It is not a new machine as I thought and they do need maintenance. Feeding problems are usually associated with a dirty or worn lining, burned out tip, rollers with the wrong tension and many more. All easy to fix. Gas ... check that it is open and check the overall pressure (content) and the working pressure. As for those that quote MIG/MAG/GMAW, different countries call things different ways. I''ll try next time at my welding supplier (who is Indian) and tell him I need gas for my MAG, or may be for my GMAW ...and watch his face. (By the way ... is GMAW an acronym? )

Mm ... must be neat picking day. An argon cylinder is an argon cylinder. The welding supplier has a string of different mix available according to the job at hand. Small amounts of CO2 or helium and even oxygen are mixed with the main gas that is Argon. I will still call my MIG mix Argon just like I call the gas in the BBQ bottle Propane yet it is a mix of Propane Butane and Ethyl Mercaptan a bit of water and some iron oxide. As for the difference between MIG and GMAW I doubt you can say that if you use reactive gases for MIG welding it ceases to be MIG, because then only aluminium welding is MIG since even SS can be done with tri mix ... but anyway ... I think Ausfire was more interested in some practical suggestions to understand his new MIG welder. If you are still there, post a photo of your machine. I used to send the apprentice to buy "rubber rods" for our bullet welder ... worked every time because the hardware guy was in it, sent the apprentice back with all sorts of stuff. PS DasW ... if you work on cars I assume you weld thin stuff ... you should be using 93/5/2 and not 75/25. The latter is for 12 mm + steel ... or so I am told

You probably have a new electronic inverter multi something or other. Post a photo of your welder controls. When welding with the MIG, all you need is to ... remember to open your argon cylinder, set the Volts according to the job at hand and then start an arc on a similar sized scrap and change the vire speed setting until it sounds right. You can not change the volts as you weld but you can change the wire speed. Once it is set, all you do is weld. 2T and 4T are advance setting you don't need to use for sticking a sculpture parts together. They are more for repetitive welding. 2T allows to use the pedal instead of the torch switch and 4T is to set up start and stop welding automatically (sort of) One thing to keep in mind is that if you are welding outdoors and using shielding gas, any bit of wind will affect your weld and you are better using gasless wire. Also ... unless you are good at MIG welding, it is difficult to get good penetration with thick material using shielgin gas and solid wire. You are better off using gasless wire and if possible go one size bigger.

There is zero risk of explosion from sparks igniting H2 from a battery that is in the open. Unless the gases can accumulate in a very small and sealed area, they will find it's way up and away. The amount of hydrogen coming from a lead acid battery is minimal and occurs when using high current for charging above 80% capacity. A deep cycle battery like AGM emits even less. Hydrogen is very light and will find it's way from under the trailer and up into the atmosphere. Hydrogen is explosive at concentration above 4% so unless you have a bank of batteries being charged by a 100A charger inside your enclosed and sealed trailer, you have nothing to fear. An open shelf under the trailer like trucks use attached to their chassis is the way to go.

In order to find out if that can be used for a forge, you need the volume and the pressure. i think it is overkill but it depends on the size of your forge and the RPM you are going to drive it. You realise the exhaust part is not required and must be replaced with a motor. Also, older Turbo need an oil line. I think turbo on bearings don't need lubrication but better find out first. To work out the maximum CFM output here is a little formula, (3.14 x radius2) / 3 The formulas for boost or pressure are all related to the engine CFM because it is the exhaust pressure (about 30 psi) that spins the turbo. You can safely assume that the pressure will be more than enough.